Soccer Practice Tips
How to Achieve the Most in Limited Time
Motivating Soccer Players
How to Keep Soccer Practice Interesting
Why Soccer Scrimmaging is Isn't the Best Way to Train Skills
Challenges Every Soccer Coach Faces
Why Chaotic Soccer Practice Games are Good

Soccer Practice Tips.Our soccer practice games are designed to:

--Keep players active.

-- Minimize lines and maximize activity.

-- Have a high ratio of balls per player (50% or more in most cases), so soccer players learn 2 or 3 times faster than soccer drills where players stand in line.

-- Use competition and keep score to create pressure and force players to practice at Game Speed, which trains soccer players to play fast and under pressure.

-- They are more fun than drills because players stay involved and active.

-- Are good conditioning.

Be sure to give your players "tips" at the end of each game about how they can improve (there are instructions about how to do this on Premium and at Dribble Around Cone & Pass Relay Race).

Motivating Players to Attend Practice, Listen to the Coach, Be Brave, and Hustle.Our Iron-On patches can be used to Motivate Players to attend practice, listen to the Coach, be Brave (be aggressive) and hustle.

Train Your Players to Be Able to Play in Chaotic Conditions. The Dribble Across a Square and Dribble around Cone & Pass Relay Race Practice Games involve "chaos" which is good, because real soccer matches are chaotic. These games use controlled repetition and controlled chaos to train players to react instinctively, without thinking.

A big challenge for most coaches is a lack of time. How can you achieve the most in limited time? Given equal athletes and equal practice time, the coach who can teach the most during the practice will develop better players faster. This is why efficient, effective practices are important and why a high ball ratio that produces lots of touches for every player is better than a low ball ratio, scrimmaging or line drills. Most of our Practice Games have a 50% to 100% ball ratio. A 50% ball ratio allows 5 times more touches than a 10% ratio, and a 100% ratio is 10 times more than 10%. Our Practice Games are designed to allow players to repetitively practice skills in a Game Realistic way - meaning fast while under pressure. The result is that players learn to perform soccer skills instinctively at a fast speed while under pressure and in Game Realistic conditions.

Another challenge is "How to keep Soccer Practice interesting?" When I started coaching I thought I should use a lot of different drills (one reason was because I didn't know what was really important). Even after I started using Practice Games I thought it was good to play a lot of different Practice Games. The problem with that approach is that is that some Practice Games are definitely better than others because they are more efficient and more effective. If you can use the most efficient and effective Practice Games your players will improve faster. Another problem with playing a lot of different Practice Games is that setting up a lot of different Practice games can be time consuming. A third problem is that you aren't getting the repetition needed to develop Motor Memory Skills.

Keep it Interesting by Mixing Up Your Favorite Practice Games with Games that Practice Important Skills. For example, instead of doing Dribble Across a Square every time, you can substitute Across and Back Ball Tag, which is essentially Dribble Across a Square with a few defenders. It practices almost the same skills, but it's a change of pace, so it keeps the interest level high.

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